Counting down

Counting down

How long before lunch time? How much longer till the end of the day? when can I get back to my bed again? So often we spend our days consciously or subconsciously counting down. I hear this many a day from office staff, even if it is an hour into the work day" How many more hours before I punch out?" Everything we do is counting down. We are taught todo this as we plan our routines, essentially helping us get from task to task. At a traffic light in some countries the moment the red signal starts for 60-90 seconds and a little counter display starts counting down and literally 15 seconds away from the green light the car honking begins from the back to the front. We are programmed to count down.

This counting down extends the length  throughout our lives. We are counting down the years till we die. We count down till the next vacation. We count down till the next meal. We count down till the next chance we can curl up into bed and sleep. Even my toothbrush has a counting down timer for two minutes to make sure that I brush for the minimum recommendation of 2 minutes. In my opinion counting down leads to more stress. We are pressured to complete tasks in a time sensitive environment without appreciating what we are actually doing, as there is probably another long list of directives waiting for us, and we have to get through it all, and so counting down till all tasks are done and then and only then can we rest.  We even count down days till christmas as we wait for Santa to come and visit. Counting down is ever more obvious on New Years Eve when we count down till the very end of the old year and celebrate the beginning of the next. 

But what if you decide to put this paradigm on its head and count upwards? You may be surprised how much more productive, and happier you are. There is so much more freedom knowing that there is time to spend to do something, as opposed to knowing you only have a limited time after which you are on borrowed time, or have failed in your attempts at completing the task. Imagine the feeling of joy that you have so many more years of a healthy life. More years to be creative, more time to learn, more time to explore and visit places. Counting up actually releases more endorphins with more happiness and more peace. I believe that we were not meant to live a stress-full life but instead a stress-less or stress-free life. Counting up makes you look forward towards your next task versus dreading it. Counting up the years of your life as you go, piles on wisdom instead of hating getting old and counting down till the end. If we were meant to only count down we should have been born old and work backwards, yet we are born young to be able count upwards. Even when we are taught our numerics  we count up. Now do not jump into the negative sense and count up the national expenditure and debt, but instead count up with amount of good that can be done with that money spend in the appropriate sectors of public expenditure. 

I have found counting up the number of stars in the night sky very fun, as I am relieved that the universe is that big to hold so many constellations, and so in comparison my problems are that small and insignificant. Counting down is finite, counting up is infinite. Which side of infinity do you wish to be? So start counting up your blessings each day, along with the number of things to be grateful for in your life. You can start simple, go big. Count up all the good things you have done and build on it. You  can count up  all the bad things that have happened to you or said to you in the day, but  at the end let that list go. You may just end up living a more fuller life, a more wholesome fresher existence. Counting down the negatives, and counting up the positives may lead to a better balance sheet as you find you are in the black more often than not.  

If you are having a hard time counting, ask your nearest child to help you. They will gladly assist with a smile get you back in the mode of appropriate directional counting. Luckily my toothbrush has the program setting that counts upwards to 2 minutes as well! 

How high can you count today?

Ramping up and ramping down

Ramping up and Ramping down.

We live our lives with a certain rhythm. Running from time interval to time interval. Following the beats of our hearts and minds surrounded by the burdens of the day and night we journey through with a certain passion for the tune. We appear at times to follow the score sheet of instrumental music, but in fact the music of life  flows within us, around us, and through us with great orchestral patterns. Bursts of uncertainty in life are the striking chords that keeps the music piece fresh and vibrant.  

Sometimes we have too many things to do and are caught up with the hubbub of our egos and minds clashing like cymbals in a band. Too loud that our-Self cannot be heard above the din. We ramp up the music and then ramp it down as the tempo of our lives change with events. If you imagine that our-Self is the musician, the instrument we play the medium through which we express ourselves, then we can either choose to follow the music score sheet, or let the music flow. Listen to the sound of the musical notes as they emanate, and letting them just settle where  they will, without judgement. Let the music of life flow and see how it makes you feel.

 Instead of the highs and lows of the song, the ramping up and down of the notes in life, allow a more even measurement of the tune in your life to take over. Letting go of the control of your emotions is the first idea. Acceptance of the music of your heart in whatever shape or form is the second. Thirdly,  observation of the serenade of the echo of your life music. Fourthly, the awareness of the flow of the music as it varies from pulse to pulse. All these together can harness the power of the moment. In the end that is all we have. The musician knows how the whole music piece should go, but just being in the moment of the piece, drives the passion to make it either a brilliant well performed song or a disjointed cacophony of notes.  Similarly we can be in the moment and live it to the fullest and so enjoy the flow that will bring great joy. 

Clothed in kindness, happiness, joy, gentleness, patience and humbleness we can strive to make this piece of music of our lives the best piece ever written. You never know when a stranger is sitting in the hotel lobby listening to a brilliant yet humble pianist playing his heart and soul out with great gusto and vigor. Who is listening to him as he plays? Maybe no one, yet he plays as he is the only one who is really the most important as he is playing his song. Maybe everyone is listening and his music touches everyone in the lobby as they go by, taking a fragment of joy that he plays into their soul. His music reaches everywhere, as his passion and energy reshape the vibrations in  the air to a positive ambience. He offers his love of his music freely, as he is in rhythm with his life and purpose. And sometimes surprisingly the playing of his music will draw an appreciative audience. Be not afraid of the chords, but be afraid of not playing the music of your soul. 

Your silence, your loss. So lets throw away the sheet music and have a musical party!!

just another 15 minutes please

Just another 15 minutes please...

"Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so" is a quote from one of my all time favorite books, Hitch hikers guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. However this seems to be a very true statement. I hear this phrase " just another 15 minutes  please"  with different permutations such as in the context " I need just another 15 minutes" or " I wish I had just another 15 minutes to myself  in my day" or " See you in just another 15 minutes." Basically, implying that we are constantly running behind time. Do we have so many chores and things to do that there is just not enough time in the day to do them or do we crave that extra breathing  time from moment to moment ? Why not another hour in our day for ourselves? What is most valuable these days is not gold, or silver, but time management seems to have become the new hot commodity. We all desire and need more time. We are always running out of it and soon enough our allotted stay on this planet abruptly ends like a parking meter, and out pops the sign EXPIRED. Even if you were immortal you would still run out of time. 

So how do we get back just another 15 minutes or more. Sure,the more we try to  manage the time, the more we fail. Such is the nature of another important commodity, money. If we do not plan our finances properly, they run out, so too is the issue with time. Planning your day is important, but be a spendthrift and spend some time for yourself. I find that  10 minutes every day saved up for myself to be alone with my thoughts, and in silent meditation significantly recharges  me that I find myself "earning time" later in the day.I try to reuse this earned time ( or mileage points ) to spend more quiet time with myself and before I know it I have recuperated an hour of "my time." 

Quantum physics will explain that time is finite. Some religions will preach time is infinite or others will explain it in either linear or circular dimensions. Whatever your idea of time, the mind can play tricks leading you to either not enough or an abundance of time left. It is your mind's perspective. Perhaps cutting back on unnecessary chores, or not being in so much control of everything around you, will enable you to collect a few seconds, gather up then a few minutes, then who knows maybe store up even an hour or two !! 

Another trick I utilize is that I wear no watch. I have discovered that I have developed an innate sense of time, that was lost to me  for so many years while wearing a watch. I am freer, I get more accomplished and invariably ahead of schedule. When you are bound to a device such as your phone, your wrist watch or a clock, you are always pressured and so may lose the ability to feel the moment and experience it as it passes. This was quite disorienting for me without a doubt for the first few days, but then my natural sense ( that we are all born with) took over and guided me better throughout my busy day. We work harder and harder to get more and more and then have to work harder still to maintain that new lifestyle or balance. We work more, spend more "time", and end up just being miserable. Hence we need vacations. To get away from it all we goto better vacation resorts, and then run around exhausted and then need  "time"when we return to get our breath back. Then work more to pay for the vacation and so the false illusion of time manifests itself. If all we need is time to connect to our-Self, then geography is not going to make that happen, since you can connect with your-Self and the universe and all around you at any moment at ANY time. 

Being in the moment, being still, being timeless, recharges you more than you can ever expect. Listen to everything and react to nothing. See everything around you, and react to nothing.  Smell everything around you and react to nothing. Take a lesson from nature. It is the same energy that you were born with, reconnect to it and you will find that you do not need just another 15 minutes. Moreover you will have more than enough time to enjoy your life. 

Time is an illusion, but you are not. What are you going to do in the next  15 minutes that you have earned today?

Planning your spontaneity

Planning your Spontaneity

Swooping down and giving the one you love a peck on the cheek. Helping a perfect stranger carry a heavy bag. Taking a detour via a more scenic route. Taking an impromptu walk in a garden or park. Buying and delivering a  small gift to a friend. These are all acts of spontaneity.  We usually dart around our day with a written list in front of us or with a list in our heads of our marching orders. Compiled are the things to do, meetings, things to make or say, or pick up or buy. From the moment we wake up to the moment we end the day we have subconsciously planned out the moment to moment events AND outcomes that we expect to unfold. Why do we plan? Are we trying to get a grip on our existence? Fulfill a purpose? 

Planning is important but not imperative. Spontaneity is essential but given least importance. Planning comes from the mind. Spontaneity comes from the heart. Planning comes from the control of fear of doing something wrong. Spontaneity comes from the freedom of doing something right. It resonates a better vibration, a feeling of connection with your soul. I would like to use the idea that planning is your material self acting out, and spontaneity is your soul trying to perform. We are most alive when we are being spontaneous and most disconnected when things do not go according to plan. The nature of being  spontaneous usually takes on the element of surprise unto whomever you are being spontaneous, which usually ends up with a happier outcome. If while being spontaneous your thought from the soul does not go as expected, then you usually are not disappointed. Quite the opposite if you were planning something that did not work out,  then your mind brings forth the whys, the why nots, the doubts, the fears, the negative emotions. 

Spontaneity disrupts the monotony, planning prolongs it. Being spontaneous each moment brings about the rejuvenated nature of the soul. But you have to let yourself go and let your-Self take over. Disconnect the mind, so the soul has a chance to express it-Self. One may think that being spontaneous is being like an artsy fairy, with wishy-washing thinking, but that is probably the same person who will plan to go to see a sunset and end up missing it while looking the wrong way. 

Have you ever watched little children play? We may criticize their attention span and compare it to that of bees hopping from flower to flower, but if you watch them carefully a child's behavior is  very spontaneous. They eat, sleep, cry, play, when their soul is expressing it-Self, that is, when they feel like it. They are alive and that is how they learn. We try to plan their days, and use our skewed sense of organization to these little beings and get upset when their actions do not go according to our plan. When was the last time that you could get everything done according to your own  plan let alone some else's life according to your plan for them? Interestingly just like bees performing a significant and important dance of pollination with apparent random acts of spontaneity, children do the same as they jump from activity to activity but are actually processing, learning and adapting more than we give them credit for. They learn the language of life through spontaneity. As adults we happily knock out these innate senses only to replace them with archaic concepts of planning, that we have adopted through fear. " If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." A true parable, and good words to exist by. However, a spontaneous life is how you can live. 

Plan to be on time for your own funeral? Why not be spontaneous and be late to it !

Walking the tight rope

Walking the tight rope

Do you remember the circus weekend trips? Have you witnessed the high tension wire performers? They have to be absolutely focussed on what they do. Holding the bar completely steady just as steady as their mind to keep themselves in balance. Slightly correcting their footing from moment to moment. Breathing in and out with such infinite patience, with continued commitment till the very end. They cannot lose even a seconds concentration till they are safely at the other end. These talented individuals are fully aware of their surroundings yet remain singularly focussed on their task at hand.

This is very much how our minds should be on a regular basis. Fully focussed, yet aware of everything around us. Allowing the breathing patterns being regulated and the concentration to enable successful completion of our tasks at hand. We are always surrounded by distractions, like the clapping fans at the circus, yet despite that we have to make the effort to focus. Just like the performers it takes practice, patience and conscientious diligence in achieving the goal of harnessing the power of the mind. 

In the end, controlling the mind is the answer for us to be able to do very complex tasks and achieve complex endeavors and goals in our lives. We are always surrounded by the 2 distinct aspects of life, good and evil. Relative descriptions that distinguish our lives, or at least what we think distinguishes them. We would like to always believe that we are on the side of good, but in fact we are actually walking the tight rope of good and evil. Keeping the balance through our thoughts and minds, as they dictate our emotions and so in turn modulate our conscious behavior, we end up walking in balance. The high tension rope is our life, the each side of the bar represents the aspects of life, good and evil, the performer is us. 

Breathing through the process of meditation aides in this process. In fact it is vital. It generates calm and focus into the moment enabling the Self to enact out its great play in life. 

How tight is your rope?

What's the difference ?

What's the difference?

Differences are how we judge each other. It is how we gauge each other's value. It is how we either measure ourselves or enable us to become prejudice against our fellow man, or realize the difference gap and bridge it and  help our fellow man. 

I was visiting a historic ancient temple in India and was being a typical tourist, setting myself apart with my awkwardness and my  own sense of values. I was in a little village where everyone around me were most certainly poor and uneducated. ( Note I have already set up differences with descriptions of poverty and education status) The men and women were divided into gender lines as is the custom, and mostly everyone waited patiently in their cues waiting to enter the temple at the appointed  hour. You could clearly tell from the traditional outfits that  my fellow devotees were local. I stood out like a sore thumb. I started having a flood of thoughts of my own societal judgements like "why are we waiting so long? Do they not know who I am and they should let me in first? The locals should go to a different entrance etc.. " Basically prejudicial ideas that were spiraling out of control   about differences such as  where I am from, my economic status versus those around me, the clothes I wore, the price of my clothes, my education status, my gender etc. All of which were trying to let my  ego know that I was better than everyone else around me, an instinctive survival technique when feeling overwhelmed by the masses in a foreign land. Then suddenly someone shouted out in a native tongue a praise to the Lord. Immediately everyone shouted out the same. Since I am familiar with the religion and of the similar faith I too blurted out the same with vigor. I then paused for but a second and realized there was no difference between the man next to me or the women in the next line. We were all in the same line, for the same purpose. There was no gap. We all wanted the blessings of God, and were willing to endure the lines for that purpose. To then go in at full speed into the temple and then offer ourselves to the Creator and humbly beg for forgiveness and a better life. Either I had elevated my fellow man to my status or I stooped to his level, in any case the gap was bridged and differences were no more.  The local people in the line were happily standing laughing and singing prayer songs, while I was getting agitated. I created these differences in my mind with the help of my ever present ego.

When my wife was in the other line with our son, she too noticed something odd. When the guard at the entrance was screaming at the masses to stay in line with anger and force, as she approached the entrance he smiled at her and let her pass and then immediately yelled at the women behind her to move aside , and the women in front of her to keep the line moving. He may have noticed that she was carrying a child or that she was not a local, a foreigner, a tourist and elevated her status. But why have the difference gap in the first place? Our egos continue with this tumultuous war of judging and prejudice in an effort to survive. We find the smallest of things to nit pick and create rifts. Color of hair, eyes, height, weight, are small, but these escalate to differences of religious beliefs,  cultural ideologies, societal practices that then lead to  wars, condemnation and death, or at least until one side has 'won'

We all get up in the morning, we all have to use the toilet, we all have change our clothes, we all bathe, we all try to eat breakfast, we all perform the same morning ablutions. In the night we all sleep. We are all seeking the same thing, happiness, peace and a easier life. We are a lot more similar than we have differences. We all wish to be loved, and to love. We all wish to be free. Letting go of the ego, and setting it free is the answer. No ego, no differences. 

Whether you are old, young, male, female, black, brown, white, rich or poor, it does not make a difference, we all pick our noses the same way !! ( and yes you do) The question is whether will you make ANY difference in another, viewed through your miopic vision to create prejudice or will you take on the panoramic view of your fellow man and the world. Try bridging the difference gap and see how good you feel with the sense of oneness with all around you. The universe does not see you any different than any one else, why do you let yourself see and create the differences. You were created from the same universal spark with the same chance at life that everyone and everything else. But some will say that a child is either born into a rich or poor family, but who created these differences since time in memorial, we have. 

If you look to me, I look to you, there is no difference. Broaden your vision  and see that gaps are not really there.  How different are you? Or are you that different?

Pot holes or ulcers on the road of life

Pot holes, or ulcers on the road of life ?

Every year around the winter season, the snow falls, ice melts, the roads expand and contract, and a pothole forms. Eroding the road leads to hazardous driving  as well as the potential for tires being ripped and axles getting maligned as the car "falls" into the pot holes. It is hard to judge the depth of the potholes. Some deeper than others, in any event leading to destruction of vehicle mobility. When we go over a pot hole, there is usually the accompanied anger, frustrated expletives that are uttered with curses against the town for not fixing the roads, resulting in rash driving to avoid the pothole or at the very least, a bumpy ride. This all generates a very negative experience.  

Through out our lives we encounter negative experiences, and each time this leaves a little mark in our psyche. This mark depending on the magnitude of the experience can form a scar, a tear, a hole in our minds and souls. Eventually if not corrected, or fixed will lead to a pot hole of our consciousness. How deep a pot hole depends on how much negativity we choose to allow to erode it. The deeper it gets the harder it is to repair, and soon this can fracture the road . Other drivers that come across our roads, our lives, are also affected by our personal potholes and unfortunately no pot hole encounter is a positive one. These mental and spiritual ulcers are literally manifested into our bodies in the form of disease and we continue to ignore the warning signs till it is too late to fix, and the road is destroyed. We then impolitely blame others for our follies and bad choices. 

We need to create stronger surfaces on which to travel. Strengthened by resolve, determination and positivity we then solidify the surfaces of our mind, thereby not allowing pot holes to form. Some mental potholes we can patch up but if the tools and the materials used to do this exercise are not sturdy, the pot holes will re-ulcerate again. Stronger surfaces of the mind, better and smoother roads for our lives, better experiences for all drivers. Tools and materials that can be used include connecting with the universe, letting go of your ego, enabling the flow of your consciousness, listening to your soul.  These ideas are manifest through healthier eating habits, more exercise, nourishing ourselves with wholesome acts of goodness. 

More rest, slowing down, meditation and being in the moment keeps us from the rash driving of impulses in our daily lives.  Being aware of our potential for pot holes, keeps us alert enough to avoid falling into the existing potholes. Unfortunately no one realizes how deep the pot hole is till it is right upon them. But these pot holes of the road did not spring up overnight. They like our experiential scars took time to get eroded into the ulcers. We even know that the season of potholes  is coming and that better tar or concrete materials are needed to be used to fix them, but we make excuses. The concrete is too expensive or we are crunched for time as we wake up too late and so we use cheaper materials and do bad patch work that are guaranteed to fail in closing the holes, and end up with yet another negative experience. 

Forewarned is foresight. If we have this understanding, we need to act now. Every moment can lead to a negative experience and a mark onto our consciousness, and the cyclic process begins. WE generate the anger, the hatred and the ill will that create these spiritual rifts and later when we look back at ourselves we can see these life-roads littered with potholes filled with negative experiences, fractured roads of bad connections, lonely roads devoid of fellow drivers. 

A bleak picture, of course. A sad state of affairs, certainly. A change of season is coming. A time for patience, a time for correction, a time for understanding. Let the work crews of your soul jump out and start fixing these pot holes. Put out your construction sign " Work in Progress"  and signal others to follow suit. Give yourself a chance to drive on smoother, stronger roads and experience the wonder of seeing the beautiful  world and your helpful fellow drivers. Dont forget that if you see someone stranded in their pothole, stop and give them a hand. They may end up returning the favor down your road.

Wishing you a bumpy-free ride on your road of life.